PHANTACEA – A Very Brief History

PHANTACEA, and with it Phantacea Publications, began as a 6-issue comic book series written and published by Jim McPherson between the years 1977 and 1980. A large number of artists, most of them Canadian and/or based in Vancouver Canada at the time, contributed to PHANTACEA. They included Dave Sim, Gordon Parker, Sean Newton, Ian Bateson, Peter Lynde, Richard Sandoval, Carl Muecke, Verne Andrusiek (later Verne Andru), Gene Day, Vince Marchesano, Tim Hammell, Reg Klassen and George Freeman.

In 1986, Jim McPherson wrote and published PHANTACEA Phase One. Although parts of subsequent issues were prepared, only one issue was printed. The cover art was by Ian Bateson, who also redrew some of the Dave Sim artwork from PHANTACEA One. A backup feature was drawn by Ian Fry, in his first work as a comic book artist. All of the backup material Ian Fry prepared for this project was collected and print-published here.

In 1990, Jim McPherson (operating as James H McPherson, Publisher, for the first time) published "Forever & 40 Days - The Genesis of PHANTACEA". The graphic novel aspect of this PHANTACEA Mythos print publication was written by Jim McPherson and drawn by Ian Fry. The cover was by Ian Bateson, in part working from a design by Jim McPherson and Ian Fry.

A short story entitled "Sister Grandmother", written by Jim McPherson, was included in the package. It spotlighted some of the members of PHANTACEA's Damnation Brigade, notably Wilderwitch and Dervish Furie. Also included in the package were additional text features and a table detailing the proper names, birth years, correctly calculated longevity, and the death years of the 10 patriarchs of post-Eden, Golden Age Humankind (according to the PHANTACEA Mythos).

From 1996 until the present day, Jim McPherson has been writing, designing and publishing pH-Webworld (PHANTACEA on the Web). Among the many attractions of this website are photo essays and illustrations prepared by Jim McPherson. Many of these are collages incorporating photographs he has taken on his various travels.

Since 2007, Jim McPherson has had a separate website dedicated to these travels. Its former title, Jim McPherson's Travels in my Pants, was intended as a joke, as in 'Travels with my Aunt'. (Which, I believe, was a series of travelogues put out in the Sixties, though I could wrong about that.) It was not, repeat not, a porn site. Suchlike insidious allegations would not go away, however, so I retitled it Jim McPherson's Travels. You can get to it from here.

In 2008, Jim McPherson finally gave up shopping it around and decided to self-publish "Feeling Theocidal - Book One of The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories". The first release from Phantacea Publications in 18 years, Feel Theo was also the first-ever, all-prose mosaic novel featuring the PHANTACEA Mythos. Its cover was by long-time Phantacea artist Verne Andru.

Feel Theo was followed a year later, in the Fall of 2009, by "The War of the Apocalyptics". As the first entry in the Launch 1980 story sequence, War-Pox is based on the PHANTACEA comic books as well as the web-serial of the same name, which was published online from 1996-1998. The cover art was by another long-time Phantacea stalwart Ian Bateson.

Due to communication difficulties with an artist who (howsoever arguably) had agreed to do the cover, "The 1000 Days of Disbelief - Book Two of The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories" did not come out as scheduled in 2010. Instead, Jim McPherson released digest versions of the first two mini-novels comprising 1000-Daze.

Subtitled Sedon Play and Sedon Plague respectively, these were followed in the Spring of 2011 by augmented trade paperbacks of essentially the same mini-novels: "The Death's Head Hellion" and "Contagion Collectors". (Said augmentation came in the form of Character Companions that are now online, starting here.)

As he had with Feel Theo and War-Pox, Jim McPherson had previously prepared collages intended as tentative covers for both of these mini-novels. Came time for releasing the trade paperbacks, tentative became definite. Later on that same year he released the concluding mini-novel comprising 1000-Daze.

Entitled "Janna Fangfingers", and subtitled Sedon Purge, it too featured a collage prepared by Jim McPherson for its cover. In addition to its own unique Character Companion, Fangers presented a framing story that acts as a prequel to the Launch 1980 story cycle War-Pox began in 2009.

"Goddess Gambit" came out early in 2012. The concluding entry in The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories trilogy, it carries on directly from where Fangers' framing story ended. Eventually, perhaps even surprisingly given War-Pox's, um, apocalyptic ending, it also picks up the Launch 1980 story cycle from where the 2009 novel left off. The cover, by Verne Andru, continues his long association with Phantacea.

After an extended gestation period, "Phantacea Revisited 1: The Damnation Brigade", a 120-page graphic novel collecting D-Brig storylines from Phantacea 1-5 plus PHANTACEA Phase One #1 (1987) and PHANTACEA Phase One #2 (unpublished), finally came out in mid-2013. The cover is by Phantacea stalwart Ian Bateson (Ian Bateson's Studio), whose artwork makes up the bulk of the book. Early material from Dave Sim ('Cerebus the Aardvark') and Verne Andru ('420') also features. Chris Chuckry ('Frogrocket') provided some timely assistance on the front cover.

That autumn marked the release of 'Nuclear Dragons', a full-length mosaic novel set almost exclusively on the Outer Earth. It continues the Launch 1980 story cycle, which began five years earlier with War-Pox and, even though the endgame was much different than in pH-6, sort of continued with Gambit. The final entry in Jim McPherson's seemingly never-ending project to novelize the comic book series will be "Helios on the Moon".

After yet another frustrating development period, "Phantacea Revisited 2: Cataclysm Catalyst" came out in mid-Spring 2014. It's a 96-page graphic novel collecting the complete 'Soldier's Saga' as well as some of the 'Centauri Island' storylines from Phantacea 1-6 and PHANTACEA Seven (unpublished); also contains the origin of the Moloch Sedon sequence from PHANTACEA Phase One #1 (1987), as first reprinted in 'Forever & 40 Days -- the Genesis of PHANTACEA'(1990). Like pHRv1 Jim McPherson dusted off his Adobe Photoshop and In Design skills, such as they are, in order to scan in, re-proof, lay out and basically package the entire collection singlehandedly.

Individual copies of the novels and mini-novels are available through via a wide variety of online booksellers including amazon.com and affiliates such as amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk, as well as Coutts Information (and Library) Services in Canada, Barnes & Noble in the US and Bertrams in the UK.

The list prices for Feel Theo and War-Pox are the same: $23.00 CAD in Canada and $22.00 USD in the States. (I've seen Feel Theo advertised for lots less, though, so have a google, as the saying goes.)

Gambit and Nuck-Drags are much longer than the earlier two full-length novels. Consequently they go for $25.00 CAD or USD. The first two mini-novels cost $10.00 each whereas Fangers goes for $12.00 in either currency. As per below, Feel Theo, Hellion, Contagion and Fangers are also available on the Kindle format from amazon.com.

Bookstores and bookseller collectives can order bulk copies of the novels from Amazon, Drive Thru Fiction, the Ingram Book Company, Ingram International and Baker & Taylor, among many other places. In this regard, I note Bertrams|THE in the UK supports the Independent Booksellers Group (IBG), which makes it possible for many bricks and mortar bookstores to place bulk orders at a sensible savings. And that, to editorialize for a brief moment, strikes me as an eminently worthwhile innovation; something booksellers over here should emulate.

pH-Webworld (once, as already noted, PHANTACEA on the Web, but as often nowadays generally called Jim McPherson PHANTACEA Mythos Online) has been serializing mini-novels and short stories featuring Jim McPherson's PHANTACEA Mythos throughout its existence. A companion website, www.phantacea.com, is dedicated entirely to PHANTACEA Mythos print and now digital publications.

Phantacea Publications – Anheroic Fantasy since 1977 – are still nominally put out by James H McPherson, Publisher. That’d be me.

Jim McPherson
Creator/Writer/Publisher
jmcp@phantacea.com

Top of Page - Page Contents - On to Book Covers - Bottom of Page Lynx